Mars Sextile Jupiter – The Top Top Footballer’s Aspect of Brazil 2014

Its almost 40 years ago, but Capricorn Research can still remember it as vividly as yesterday. The day he was handed a piece of paper filled with obscure symbols and straight lines that was supposed to be him. After a puzzled look, the inevitable question ” well what does it mean ? ” was met with the response ” I don’t know that yet, I’ve only just learnt to draw it “.

The answer was provided by a absurdly cool fellow student who had just returned from a 3 month trip to India where he had apparently enrolled as a novice in this esoteric field. He then left me holding my birth chart together with a strong suspicion that he knew perfectly well what it meant but that he was going to hold this knowledge over me for some kind of psychic oneupmanship.

What has since been realised was that he was too embarrassed to tell me that I had just about everything in the most uncool sign imaginable. So armed with Alan Oken’s ” The Horoscope, the Road and Its Travellers “, I was forced to find out for myself.

It’s hard to believe but I had managed to reach the age of 22 without ever having read a horoscope column or even knowing what my Sun sign was or even literally having anything at all in my head that was of any use whatsoever.

One might expect a triple Capricorn’s conversion to astrology would be a relatively slow one that builds over time whilst an innately suspicious and disbelieving nature was gently eroded by a dawning recognition of the growing truth. Absolutely wrong, it was like being shoved through a wormhole and emerging instantly in an utterly different Universe. But then this is what happens when Pluto is square your Moon at the same time that your progressed Sun hits an exact Jupiter / Uranus / Neptune / Chiron / Ascendant T Square.

So I immediately dropped out of University, pitched a tent in Compendium bookshop in Camden Town and read everything I could get my hands on. It would take a whole article to list the many wise teachers who inspired me, but perhaps the two people who had the biggest impact weren’t even astrologers themselves, or at least not to begin with.

Michel and Francois Gauquelin made me see that Astrology could not only be the cause of dramatic self realisation for individuals, it could be proved to the world as well. And of course their most famous research was on the diurnal positions of Mars amongst top sportsmen.

The fact that a lot of stupid people queued up to dismiss this wonderful research did not deter me one bit. There are many factors that constantly drive Capricorns along their solitary mountain path, but an important one is the general agreement of the folks having a party down there in the valley that they are stubborn old goats who would be much better off obtaining a life.

So in the time that it takes for Pluto to move from a square aspect to a conjunction to said Moon, Capricorn Research has confirmed that the Gauquelins’ were right about a Mars link.

It’s taken a while because it didn’t come through the usual channel. A collection of 2680 sports stars yielded a lot of things, but no particularly significant Mars house sign distribution. There is a slight tendency to favour the 11th, 12th and 1st houses but nothing of statistical significance.

This is a large sample so it is interesting to look at what there is though.

The Sun’s position through the houses is significant with the 11th house scoring highest at 257 or 115% of the expected total.

The ” p ” result for this is a very strong 0.000003704 bearing in mind that statistical significance kicks in at anything lower than 0.05.

This is a staggering result in itself, but Capricorn Research has long become used to these things. The Sun in house score for 20641 Public Figures is 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000160 %

The sports star figures reflect the larger group almost exactly although 11th house scores the highest, whereas for Public Figures its the 12th.

Another extraordinary score that came up for the 2680 sports stars was Venus in Aquarius at 128.5% of the expected figure giving a Chi Square / p score of 0.0000000008604.

This is bizarrely reflected in an identical percentage score for the Venus / Saturn conjunction of 153 as opposed to an expected 119.

A few months ago, Capricorn Research read about a study that was done on the birthdays of the squads of footballers at the 1998 World Cup.

They found that there was a statistically significant connection between players having the Sun and Moon in adjacent signs, but because they could find no astrologers ( presumably from an exhaustive interview with two or three horoscope columnists ) who could explain this phenomenon, they ignored it altogether.

Its wonderfully patronising that so called scientists claim that they have no pre conceptual prejudice when they look into astrology, then when they find something that goes against those non existent prejudices, they dismiss it out of hand.

It is much appreciated when outsiders make an attempt at a serious look at our subject, but this particular mountain goat feels it is akin to a bunch of valley folk stumbling out of the pub at closing time, thinking it would be a great crack to go up ” the hill ” in the dark. Inevitably they make it a couple of hundred yards and then think ” nah soddit, nothing to see here ” and head back down to the nearest all night party.

The trouble is Capricorn Research is pathologically incapable of ignoring any challenge particularly if it connects the twin obsession of astrology and football. A quick look at the charts of a few footballing greats suggested there might be something in this adjacent signs idea. Consecutive signs are known for being utterly different to each other, so to have the lights in neighbouring signs would convey an intriguing spread of abilities. Top footballers need a skill set that is multi tasking and adaptable.

So the 1998 World Cup study was used to add to the ever lengthening list of excuses for watching every single match in Brazil 2014, and a similar project had to be undertaken. So the 736 charts of the full squads even including Louis Van Gaal’s last minute goalkeepers were drawn up.

At this point it must be remembered that there are no birth times available for any but a select few of these charts, so its all done for noon and Ascendants and house positions have been discounted. Unfortunately this means that we have no way of confirming or denying the Gauqelin’s results, but it does provide lots of food for thought.

Appropriately on the day after the final, the results come in. The first thing to say is that the findings in the 1998 study are not replicated. There is a slight lean towards adjacent signs with 68 in the signs where the Moon is 1 ahead of the Sun, and 65 when its 1 behind, with an expected average of 61.33.

However in the extraordinarily beautiful way the Universe has of toying with us all, the tournament’s deciding goal was scored by German substitute Mario Gotze, who has the Sun in Gemini, Moon in Cancer, the exact mirror image of the player who was meant to decide the final, Lionel Messi.

So unlike the 1998 team of researchers, we should keep this adjacent signs theory on hold for future tournaments. In fact this is the way it goes in astrology research. Devotees get turned into rainbow chasers with the added bonus of a steady supply of gold nuggets. As soon as you complete one piece of research, another six avenues are tantalisingly dangled in front of you.

The combinations vary significantly from the lowest score of only 1 for the Capricorn Sun / Scorpio Moon to a massive 15 for Sun Taurus / Moon Pisces. The Taurus / Pisces combination is an interesting one which will be observed more keenly in future, particularly as it provides an excellent explanation of Andrea Pirlo’s ability to engender panic in all defences, particularly England’s, without appearing to move at all.

Aquarius is the most common Sun sign in this World Cup with a score of 80, which is over 130% of the expected figure. It does seem to be quantity rather than quality however as Ronaldo, Neymar, di Maria and Suarez head the Aquarian group whose World Cup experience was shortened by injury or hunger with Saturn currently in square to the sign.

Cancer is the lowest with a mere 49 or 80%, a very small figure but with the opposite impact to Aquarius, as Jupiter’s transit through the sign brought us a long list of over achievers headed by Messi and James Rodriguez.

The spread of the Sun signs gives a p figure of 0.0266, just at the point where statisticians start to take interest. This however is dwarfed by the Mars in sign results.

Mars is in Gemini a staggering 89 times at 145 % with the lowest score in Sagittarius of 40 at a mere 65%. The p figure for the Mars distribution is 0.00000765 which is off the scale stuff and a powerful proof of an astrological connection.

Interestingly this confirms some of Capricorn Research’s other findings. Sagittarius is a sign that is generally associated with sport but this is not backed up by the study of 2680 Sports figures, where it is the lowest Sun sign with less than 80% of the expected figure. Oddly enough, Pisces a sign that is more frequently linked with the Arts is the highest scoring with 114%. This distribution has a p figure of 0.032, again just at the point where statisticians begin to raise eyebrows.

With Venus positions the Gemini theme continues with 129% although this falls behind the figure of 135% for Aries with a statistically very significant p figure for the distribution of 0.001.

The particular emphasis of the Air signs may be a feature generally in top footballers or it may be particularly relevant to Brazil 2014, where the openness of the play has delighted fans and given managers apoplexy in equal measure.

The aspects for the Brazil 736 are very interesting. Conjunctions with Saturn come up with remarkable frequency. Saturn’s conjunction with Mercury scores at 146% of expected frequency, with Venus at 153% and with Mars at an extraordinary 165%.

Many people would not expect aspects to Saturn to come up so frequently because of the planet’s association with limitation but the conjunctions often convey a strong sense of discipline and the ability to establish something of great practical worth. With Mars conjunct Saturn at this frequency it shows the tremendous amount of effort and even suffering that has gone into training to reach the pinnacle of the game.

These findings are also replicated in Sport generally as the 2680 group have Saturn conjunct at 119%, Venus at 128% and Mars at 118%. These percentages, although smaller are at least as significant statistically as the sample is 4 times the size of the Brazil 2014 group.

In the Brazil 736, Mercury is trine to Saturn 147% of the expected number of times. Mercury is also trine Uranus 153% and Neptune 155% of the expected scores.

Venus is also trine Mars at 159%, but there are two stand out aspects that occur with an incredible frequency.

Mercury is trine Mars 65 times, which because of the differences in aspect frequency caused by Mars proximity to the Earth means that this aspected occurred 234% of the expected number of times. Of course for a highly skilled footballer it is exactly the sort of thing you would want and even expect.

But even this phenomenal result that would have the 1998 research team rubbing their eyes, pales into insignificance compared to the real winner.

If you were to ask any astrologer what they would expect in a collection of charts of the most successful footballers on the planet, its almost certain that the response would be a contact between Mars and Jupiter.

And given that, it would be helpful to have a nice flowing one. The trines might make it a bit to easy, but the sextile brings exceptional gifts but also allows a little bit of work putting them together in order to produce the finished article.

Mars sextile Jupiter occurs a breathtaking 89 times when the expected average would be 33. That’s 272%.

Of course we should have known that the Mars sextile Jupiter aspect would have the final say in who is the greatest. We would only have had to ask Cristiano Ronaldo who has Mars at 2 Aries and Jupiter at 29 Capricorn.

It has also had a massive impact on this World Cup through the likes of Javier Mascherano who unsurprisingly has the combination in Scorpio and Capricorn, and in a rather more uncontrolled and adventurous but extremely entertaining fashion, David Luiz who has it in Gemini and Aries.

It looks like we have found the astrological significator of both the archetypal hard man defensive midfielder and the ” hollywood ” 50 yard long ball to noone in particular followed by the mad dash upfield only to be too exhausted to come back and do a proper marking job.

Perhaps we should call Mars sextile Jupiter the ” top, top footballers aspect “. If so then Alex Ferguson was right that Steven Gerrard doesn’t have it. The Liverpool and England captain does have the conjunction though, and what does Fergie know anyway.

This has been a fascinating study but the trouble is that all mountains are part of a range, and you get to the top of one only to see even bigger ones rising away in this distance. So Capricorn Research is already feeling the pressure to do the same piece of work for all the World Cups since 1930. The trouble is there is so much to see, it is literally mind blowing. Maybe the valley dwellers were right after all.

Of course this study, like all the bleatings of mountain goats will be entirely ignored by the dominant philosophy of the folks down in the dip. If there was any serious danger of these goat calls getting too loud and frequent, they’d send out the ” rescue ” helicopters and drag you down off the mountain and tie you to a post with a rope. All for your own good of course. Then you too could enjoy the fruits of their life.